MDA says no to delimitation

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Mar 17: The Manipur Democratic Alliance (MDA) has reiterated its strong stand against any delimitation exercise based on erroneous census report.
Notably, MDA is a confederation of nine political parties.
Speaking to media persons at the Babupara office of Shiv Sena, State unit this afternoon, MDA convenor M Tombi recalled that the Ministry of Law and Justice issued a notification on February 28 last year which announced that there would be delimitation in Jammu & Kashmir and four North Eastern States including Manipur.  
Subsequently, the Ministry of Law and Justice issued an order on March 6 last year whereby a delimitation commission was constituted.
But all these steps were protested in the strongest term by many political parties, CSOs and NGOs of the State.
The MDA sent representations to the President, the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister categorically stating that no delimitation should be done in Manipur based on erroneous census report, Tombi said.
Apart from sending a similar representation to the delimitation commission, the MDA filed a PIL at the High Court of Manipur in July 2020, he said.
The delimitation sent a reply on January 1 this year informing that the objections raised by MDA have been noted and the matter would be considered, Tombi said.
The Ministry of Law and Justice issued another notification on March 3 this year whereby it was announced that the planned delimitation exercises in the States of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Nagaland have been cancelled.   Nonetheless, the MDA convenor reiterated that no delimitation exercise should be carried out based on erroneous census report.
If there should be any delimitation exercise in Manipur, it should be based on the latest and error free census report, Tombi asserted.
Meanwhile, the PIL filed by the MDA at the High Court of Manipur was disposed of yesterday by a Division Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Kh Nobin Singh, he said.
The Division Bench disposed of the PIL on the ground that the planned delimitation exercise has been cancelled, Tombi said. He also welcomed the Court’s decision.